Skip to main content

Mandolin of Rude Truths

Magic instrument • Carried by Leliana

Overview​

The Mandolin of Rude Truths is a magic mandolin belonging to Leliana. Leliana has played mandolin since she first appeared in Session 34. She received this one in Session 37, and it holds charges that can cast spells, Fly among them. After Session 57 the mandolin was reflavored as her brother Steven's Blue Moon Guitar: the guitar is the same magic item, with the same charges, and it is on the guitar that she flies over the barracks wall in Session 62. See that page for its story from Session 57 on.

Properties​

  • Charges. In Session 42 Leliana cast Fly from one of the mandolin's charges. The DM ruled that because a charge uses no spell slot, she could cast Fly from the mandolin and Healing Word as a bonus action on the same turn.
  • Still concentration. The Fly from the mandolin still needs concentration. When Leliana cast Polymorph, another concentration spell, later in the same fight, the flight ended. The DM said no when the table asked whether a Fly cast from the item could get around this.

History​

  • Awarded (Session 37). With the party at level 9 after the fall of Helja Ungar, the teens handed out the magic items they had found. Leliana's was the Mandolin of Rude Truths.
  • The Order's bucket (Session 39). At the Dragon's Hide, the Order of St. George asked the party to put its enchanted gear in a bucket while it scanned them, and Leliana put in her mandolin.
  • The dragon fight (Session 42). In the water during the fight with the dragon, Leliana cast Fly from the mandolin to rise out of it and hover above the boat, and healed herself on the same turn.
  • Bardic inspiration (Session 52). Luke described Leliana's bardic inspiration with "a little mandolin playing in the background".
  • Reflavored (after Session 57). Once Leliana inherited Steven's guitar in Session 57, the mandolin became the Blue Moon Guitar. Its Fly charges carried over, and she flies on the guitar (Sessions 61–62).

Session History​

  • Session 37 — Leliana receives the Mandolin of Rude Truths when the party's found magic items are handed out.
  • Session 39 — She hands the mandolin over for the Order of St. George's magic scan at the Dragon's Hide.
  • Session 42 — Leliana spends a charge to cast Fly from the mandolin and heals herself on the same turn, then loses the flight when she casts Polymorph.